Piglets, Iowa Food Coop, & winter deliveries

I caught the piglets free-ranging in the yard, making divets underneath the girls’ volleyball net. Stinkers. I’ve been working with Ava, teaching her to keep them out of the yard and back by the buildings. At first she just looked at me like, “won’t I get in trouble for chasing them?” But she’s catching on now.

Today is the first day of the December ordering cycle at the Iowa Food Coop website. You can order through December 12. Delivery will be December 17. We were pleased with our sales in our first month, hopefully they continue to grow!

Our local winter deliveries are starting this week! Charles City will be Wednesday evening (ordering deadline is today!), and Mason City will be Thursday evening (ordering deadline Wednesday.) See our Google group page for more information.

Once, driving through farming country with a friend, we spotted hay bales like these. My friend launched into a story about the activities and habits of these rural creatures, as if the bales were alive and very purposeful and secretive. He was a genius storyteller and every new sighting furthered the story that kept us in stitches for the entire trip. Most enjoyable drive in the country ever.

Those are cornstalk bales, made after the corn is harvested. We use them for bedding for the cows. Break them apart & build them up in a nice big hill. Gets the cattle up out of the wet & mud in the spring, plus they compost & heat from underneath.